Session 4: Week 7 – Genesis 9:18 – Genesis 10

¹⁸ Now the sons of Noah who went out of the ark were Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And Ham was the father of Canaan. ¹⁹ These three were the sons of Noah, and from these the whole earth was populated.

Shem: name; renown

Ham: hot; heat; brown

Japeth: enlarged; fair; persuading

²⁰ And Noah began to be a farmer, and he planted a vineyard. ²¹ Then he drank of the wine and was drunk, and became uncovered in his tent. ²² And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brothers outside. ²³ But Shem and Japheth took a garment, laid it on both their shoulders, and went backward and covered the nakedness of their father. Their faces were turned away, and they did not see their father’s nakedness.

²⁴ So Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done to him. ²⁵ Then he said: “Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren.” 

²⁶ And he said: “Blessed be the Lord, The God of Shem, And may Canaan be his servant. ²⁷ May God enlarge Japheth, And may he dwell in the tents of Shem; And may Canaan be his servant.”

²⁸ And Noah lived after the flood three hundred and fifty years. ²⁹ So all the days of Noah were nine hundred and fifty years; and he died.

This story is a foreshadow of commandment #5 in God’s 10 Commandments Exodus 20:12 ¹² “Honor your father and your mother, that your days may be long upon the land which the Lord your God is giving you.

The first 4 commandments are about man’s relationship with God and the last 6, man’s relationship to man. These apply to everyone on earth. Let’s be reminded of them.

The 10 Commandments List

1. You shall have no other gods before Me.
2. You shall not make idols.
3. You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.
4. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.
5. Honor your father and your mother.
6. You shall not murder.
7. You shall not commit adultery.
8. You shall not steal.
9. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.
10. You shall not covet.

What are your thoughts about following the 10 commandments? John 14:15

The 10 Commandments are a great tool to use in sharing your faith with people. I’ll put a link in this week’s resources introducing you to a ministry called “Living Water – Way of the Master” and you can see how they use the 10 commandments as a great evangelism tool.

Genesis 10

10 Now this is the genealogy of the sons of Noah: Shem, Ham, and Japheth. And sons were born to them after the flood.

² The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. ³ The sons of Gomer were Ashkenaz, Riphath, and Togarmah. ⁴ The sons of Javan were Elishah, Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. ⁵ From these the coastland peoples of the Gentiles were separated into their lands, everyone according to his language, according to their families, into their nations.

⁶ The sons of Ham were Cush, Mizraim, Put, and Canaan. ⁷ The sons of Cush were Seba, Havilah, Sabtah, Raamah, and Sabtechah; and the sons of Raamah were Sheba and Dedan. ⁸ Cush begot Nimrod; he began to be a mighty one on the earth. ⁹ He was a mighty hunter before the Lord; therefore it is said, “Like Nimrod the mighty hunter before the Lord.” ¹⁰ And the beginning of his kingdom was Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh, in the land of Shinar. ¹¹ From that land he went to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth Ir, Calah, ¹² and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (that is the principal city). ¹³ Mizraim begot Ludim, Anamim, Lehabim, Naphtuhim, ¹⁴ Pathrusim, and Casluhim (from whom came the Philistines and Caphtorim). ¹⁵ Canaan begot Sidon his firstborn, and Heth; ¹⁶ the Jebusite, the Amorite, and the Girgashite; ¹⁷ the Hivite, the Arkite, and the Sinite; ¹⁸ the Arvadite, the Zemarite, and the Hamathite. Afterward the families of the Canaanites were dispersed. ¹⁹ And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon as you go toward Gerar, as far as Gaza; then as you go toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. ²⁰ These were the sons of Ham, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands and in their nations.

²¹ And children were born also to Shem, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder. ²² The sons of Shem were Elam, Asshur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram. ²³ The sons of Aram were Uz, Hul, Gether, and Mash. ²⁴ Arphaxad begot Salah, and Salah begot Eber. ²⁵ To Eber were born two sons: the name of one was Peleg, for in his days the earth was divided; and his brother’s name was Joktan. ²⁶ Joktan begot Almodad, Sheleph, Hazarmaveth, Jerah, ²⁷ Hadoram, Uzal, Diklah, ²⁸ Obal, Abimael, Sheba, ²⁹ Ophir, Havilah, and Jobab. All these werethe sons of Joktan. ³⁰ And their dwelling place was from Mesha as you go toward Sephar, the mountain of the east. ³¹ These were the sons of Shem, according to their families, according to their languages, in their lands, according to their nations.

³² These were the families of the sons of Noah, according to their generations, in their nations; and from these the nations were divided on the earth after the flood.

Moses, the author of the book of Genesis, was making a point that explained later conflicts in the Bible.  Descendants of Shem and Japheth might be allies, but Ham’s people became enemies of the Shemites, (i.e. the Egyptians and Philistines).

It’s amazing that we can trace all the peoples of the earth to these 3 sons of Noah.  This genealogy is unique in that rather than just a family tree listing who fathered whom, it details descendants “by their clans and languages, in their territories and nations.”

Remember from our study in Genesis 6:8-22 that Shem is always mentioned first e.g., Genesis 9:18; 10:2, 21, even though Shem was the second-born (the Bible often lists people according to prominence rather than age). Japheth was the oldest Genesis 10:21, and Ham was the youngest Genesis 9:24. Here’s why – I think:  Eber, meaning “the other side,” is mentioned in the Table as a great-grandson of Shem. The term “Hebrew,” which originates from Eber, describes a people who came from the other side of the Euphrates River, from Haran. And so in the next session of our Bible study in Genesis we’ll be introduced to Abram, who left Haran to become Abraham, father of the Jewish nation, which produced the promised Savior, Jesus Christ.

Japheth is usually thought of as the “Father of the Europeans” and the “Father of the Japhetic Race” equating the Japhetic nations to Europeans. He is known to be the ancestor of all Indo-European nations. The majority of his descendants are situated in north western regions like Anatolia and Aegean. However, there are also assumptions that Japheth is the “Father of the Asian or Mongoloid People.”

The Pre-Flood home of Noah and his family was in the area of Babylonia which was some 500 miles east from Mount Ararat, in what is today modern Turkey. After the flood they migrated back to their homeland and built cities. God then caused the confusion of languages which caused them to disperse into the world.

The descendants of Japheth, after the Tower of Babel, when God made man go out and populate the world migrated west and north. The sons of Japheth’s sons are listed giving more detail than is found in the list of Ham’s or Shem’s sons. A study of names Japheth’s sons and grandsons sheds some light on who are his descendants today.

(The above information came from Henry M. Morris’s book The Genesis Record, pages 247-249)

What thoughts do you have about these divisions of the nations from Genesis 10?

Let’s pray.

Using the 10 commandments for witnessing

Session 4: Week 6 – Genesis 9:1-17

9 So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth.

I want to look at this world “bless”. It actually means to bestow power for success, prosperity, fertility. It’s not just saying some empty religious prayer over someone or something. Think about that. It means to bestow power for success, prosperity and fertility. That’s powerful.

There are 495 mentions of the word bless in Scripture. 378 in the Old Testament and 117 in the new.  Sometimes we read over the verses that include the promise to bless us without really knowing what the purpose of the blessing is for. Let’s remember that it means to bestow power on us for success, prosperity and fertility when reading the following verses.

Genesis 12:2

Exodus 23:25

Leviticus 9:23

Numbers 6:23-27

What new things do you realize about the act of being blessed?

Now lets look at some New Testament verses.  Remember the meaning:  to bestow power for success, prosperity, fertility.

Luke 6:28

Matthew 13:16

Matthew 25:34

Romans 12:14

What do you think God is really saying by telling us to bless our enemies, and those who persecute us?

In Yeshua’s sermon on the mount He tells us the qualities that we must possess in order to be blessed. Let’s look at those now:

 ² And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.

For all you animal lovers out there this is where it seems the relationship between man and beast became one of fear and distrust. Does anyone have any thoughts about this?

 ³ Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. ⁴ But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood.

This is a very important commandment – God is telling us not to eat blood.  This is not just important in the Old Testament. In Acts 15 when the Jerusalem Council met to determine what laws the Gentiles who were getting saved had to abide by – this was one of them. See Acts 15:19-20 Why do you think God commanded this?

 ⁵ Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.

⁸ Then God spoke to Noah and to his sons with him, saying: ⁹ “And as for Me, behold, I establish My covenant with you and with your descendants  after you, ¹⁰ and with every living creature that is with you: the birds, the cattle, and every beast of the earth with you, of all that go out of the ark, every beast of the earth. ¹¹ Thus I establish My covenant with you: Never again shall all flesh be cut off by the waters of the flood; never again shall there be a flood to destroy the earth.”¹² And God said: “This is the sign of the covenant which I make between Me and you, and every living creature that is with you, for perpetual generations: ¹³ I set My rainbow in the cloud, and it shall be for the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. ¹⁴ It shall be, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the rainbow shall be seen in the cloud; ¹⁵ and I will remember My covenant which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; the waters shall never again become a flood to destroy all flesh. ¹⁶ The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.” ¹⁷ And God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant which I have established between Me and all flesh that is on the earth.”

Just a reminder – we talked about this in week 3 of session 4 when God first talked about the rainbow. We must reclaim the true meaning of the rainbow and not let the LGBT community reframe it and use it for their own advantages, or symbolism. Sometimes I hear Christians repelled by the rainbow because of it’s use by the LGBT community as their flag. Let’s remember each time we see the rainbow symbol that we serve a God who makes and keeps covenants. What a miraculous God we serve that can create a rainbow of color in the sky when it rains.

This is for the science geeks among us: A rainbow occurs when raindrops and sunshine cross paths. Sunlight consists of all the colors of light, which add together to make white illumination. When sunlight enters water drops, it reflects off their inside surfaces. While passing through the droplets, the light also separates into its component colors, which is similar to the effect of a glass prism. Each falling water drop actually flashes its colors to the observer for just an instant, before another drop takes its place.

The bright, primary rainbow has red on the outer edge and blue within. Higher in the sky there is always another, dimmer rainbow with the order of colors reversed. This secondary rainbow results from additional reflection of sunlight through the raindrops. It is most visible when there are dark clouds behind it. Look for the second bow high in the sky the next time rainbow colors appear. Some observers have even reported seeing third and fourth rainbows above the first two.

What are your thoughts about the rainbow?

Let’s pray.

Common Hebrew Blessings

Session 4: Week 5 – Genesis 8:1-22

Then God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the animals that were with him in the ark. And God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters subsided.

God used a wind to make the waters go down. That’s interesting to me. The Hebrew word for wind is Ruakh  רוּחַ which is the same word the scriptures translate as Spirit in other passages like Genesis 1:2. 2 Now the earth was unformed and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the spirit of God hovered over the face of the waters.

Wind is a picture of God’s Spirit. Here in Genesis 8 God is using the wind to dry up the waters. This isn’t the only instance where wind is used in the deliverance of God’s people. In Exodus 14:21 we read: 21 And Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the LORD caused the sea to go back by a strong east wind all the night, and made the sea dry land, and the waters were divided.

In Ezekiel 37:9 we read; 9 Then said He unto me: ‘Prophesy unto the breath, prophesy, son of man, and say to the breath:  Thus saith the Lord GOD: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live.’

In this passage the words breath and winds are both translations of the Hebrew word Ruakh.

In 2 Samuel 22 David sings a song to the Lord on the day God delivered him from the hands of his enemies (Saul). In Verse 11 David describes seeing God on the wings of the wind, again Ruakh.  And He rode upon a cherub, and did fly; yea, He was seen upon the wings of the wind.

In all these instances God’s Ruakh is employed to bring deliverance to man. What does this teach you about God’s Spirit, and/or God in general?

In the New Testament we see wind being a sign of the Holy Spirit in Acts 2. When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. ² And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting. 

In John 20 we see Yeshua commissioning the apostles with this breath of God – the Holy Spirit. ²¹ So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” ²² And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 

Just like the believers in the New Testament (see Acts 19) we need to receive the Holy Spirit in order to be equipped for the calling that God has on our lives; and for our own deliverance as well.  What are your thoughts about this?

Back to Genesis 8:

 ² The fountains of the deep and the windows of heaven were also stopped, and the rain from heaven was restrained. ³ And the waters receded continually from the earth. At the end of the hundred and fifty days the waters decreased. ⁴ Then the ark rested in the seventh month, the seventeenth day of the month, on the mountains of Ararat.

According to the Institute for Creation Research: 8:4 mountains of Ararat. “Ararat” in the Bible is the same as “Armenia.” The “mountains of Ararat” could apply to the entire region; however, the present Mount Ararat, 17,000 feet high, is the only logical site for the ark to rest. The ark landed the very day the waters began to assuage, and it was another 2� months until the tops of nearby mountains could even be seen. There have been many reported sightings of the ark, seemingly still preserved on an almost inaccessible ledge, most of the time encased in the stationary ice cap near its summit. Though none of these reports are sufficiently documented to constitute proof, the very number and variety of them is at least intriguing evidence that the ark has been divinely preserved, awaiting God’s timing for its confirmed discovery and manifestation. Mount Ararat is a volcanic mountain, formed evidently during the early months of the Flood year (there were no volcanoes before the Flood). There is also considerable geological evidence that it was further uplifted sometime after the Flood, so that it may well have been much lower and easier of access during the years immediately following the Flood. That even the summit of Ararat was at one time under water, however, is evident both from the marine fossils that have been found there and the extensive pillow lavas (lavas formed under high hydrostatic pressure) which exist there.

 ⁵ And the waters decreased continually until the tenth month. In the tenth month, on the first day of the month, the tops of the mountains were seen.

⁶ So it came to pass, at the end of forty days, that Noah opened the window of the ark which he had made. ⁷ Then he sent out a raven, which kept going to and fro until the waters had dried up from the earth. ⁸ He also sent out from himself a dove, to see if the waters had receded from the face of the ground. ⁹ But the dove found no resting place for the sole of her foot, and she returned into the ark to him, for the waters were on the face of the whole earth. So he put out his hand and took her, and drew her into the ark to himself. ¹⁰ And he waited yet another seven days, and again he sent the dove out from the ark. ¹¹ Then the dove came to him in the evening, and behold, a freshly plucked olive leaf wasin her mouth; and Noah knew that the waters had receded from the earth. ¹² So he waited yet another seven days and sent out the dove, which did not return again to him anymore.

Interestingly, the raven is an unclean bird according to God’s standards because it eats the decaying flesh of dead animals. Lev. 11:13-15 and here the raven is sent from the ark but it never comes back. On the other hand the dove is a clean animal and another picture of the Holy Spirit. Luke 3:22 John 1:32-34. It was almost as if Noah had a relationship with the dove. That in and of itself is another beautiful picture of God’s Holy Spirit, through which we have relationship with God. How is this a new concept to you?

¹³ And it came to pass in the six hundred and first year, in the first month, the first day of the month, that the waters were dried up from the earth; and Noah removed the covering of the ark and looked, and indeed the surface of the ground was dry. ¹⁴ And in the second month, on the twenty-seventh day of the month, the earth was dried.

Later on in scripture God calls the time of the Passover the beginning of months in Exodus 12:

¹⁵ Then God spoke to Noah, saying, ¹⁶ “Go out of the ark, you and your wife, and your sons and your sons’ wives with you. ¹⁷ Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.” ¹⁸ So Noah went out, and his sons and his wife and his sons’ wives with him. ¹⁹ Every animal, every creeping thing, every bird, and whatever creeps on the earth, according to their families, went out of the ark. ²⁰ Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar.

God had just told Noah to bring everything out of the ark so that they could be fruitful and multiply. Noah then makes the decision to sacrifice one of every clean animal and clean bird to the Lord. What does that tell us about Noah’s faith in God?

 ²¹ And the Lord smelled a soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in His heart, “I will never again curse the ground for man’s sake, although the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done.

Why do you think sacrifices are a soothing aroma to the Lord?

The Search for Noah’s Ark

Session 4: Week 4 – Genesis 7:1-24

7 Then the Lord said to Noah, “Come into the ark, you and all your household, because I have seen that you are righteous before Me in this generation.

Upon reading this first verse of Genesis chapter 7 we have to stop and think about this. God called out to Noah and invited Noah and all his family into the ark for protection.  Why? Because God saw that Noah was righteous before Him.  What does this mean to you? How can we be righteous in God’s sight?

This is a profound mystery – that we’ve been made the righteousness of God in Christ. 2 Cor. 5:21 It’s something that we need to grasp hold of every single day of our lives and do everything we can to walk it out. It’s what we need to understand to help guide our daily choices in what we say and do.

What are you doing in your life right now that demonstrate that you are the righteousness of God in Messiah?

What areas of your life do you know you have to change in so that you demonstrate this truth more fully?

There’s an incredible promise in this first verse. God saved Noah’s entire family because God saw that Noah was righteous. It doesn’t say that Noah’s family was righteous. I don’t know about you but that brings me great hope with regard to the eternal destiny of my family, even though some don’t know the Lord right now.

There’s a verse in the New Testament Acts 16:31 that we cling to to see the salvation our families. Yeshua/Jesus is often seen as the eternal “ark of God.” We come into Him for protection and safe passage.

³¹ So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.”

The Greek word here for “believe” is πιστεύω pisteúō, pist-yoo’-o; from G4102; to have faith (in, upon, or with respect to, a person or thing), i.e. credit; by implication, to entrust (especially one’s spiritual well-being to Christ):—believe(-r), commit (to trust), put in trust with.

One of our main goals as people of faith within our family is to continue to press into to thoughts, prayers and declarations of faith in Messiah regarding the salvation of our loved ones. God help us not to stand in agreement with the enemy (the accuser) with regard to the salvation of our families. Let’s ask for the Holy Spirit’s help to guide our thoughts, prayers and declarations regarding our pre-believing loved ones!

How does this change your perspective regarding the salvation of the members of your family?

 ² You shall take with you seven each of every clean animal, a male and his female; two each of animals that are unclean, a male and his female; ³ also seven each of birds of the air, male and female, to keep the species alive on the face of all the earth. ⁴ For after seven more days I will cause it to rain on the earth forty days and forty nights, and I will destroy from the face of the earth all living things that I have made.” 

There’s a lot of numbers going on here:  7 sets of clean animals; 1 set of unclean animals and 7 sets of birds – all male and female.

God was giving Noah and his family 7 days to accomplish getting all these creatures into the ark to keep them alive. Then it would rain 40 days and every living thing on earth would be destroyed.

What does this show you about God?

⁵ And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. ⁷ So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, ⁹ two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ¹² And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

What a scene!  In my last e-newsletter I encouraged everyone to read Scripture and see the pictures in your mind like you were watching a movie. Let’s re-read this with that instruction.

⁵ And Noah did according to all that the Lord commanded him. ⁶ Noah was six hundred years old when the floodwaters were on the earth. ⁷ So Noah, with his sons, his wife, and his sons’ wives, went into the ark because of the waters of the flood. ⁸ Of clean animals, of animals that are unclean, of birds, and of everything that creeps on the earth, ⁹ two by two they went into the ark to Noah, male and female, as God had commanded Noah. ¹⁰ And it came to pass after seven days that the waters of the flood were on the earth. ¹¹ In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, on that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. ¹² And the rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

What do you glean from this passage by envisioning it actually happening?

¹³ On the very same day Noah and Noah’s sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered the ark— ¹⁴ they and every beast after its kind, all cattle after their kind, every creeping thing that creeps on the earth after its kind, and every bird after its kind, every bird of every sort. ¹⁵ And they went into the ark to Noah, two by two, of all flesh in which is the breath of life. ¹⁶ So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

Moving on to verses 13-15 it seems like the Lord wants us to see the picture too because He reiterates it in verses 13-15. Verse 16 is interesting. The Lord shut them in. What’s interesting here is found in the Hebrew:

טז  וְהַבָּאִים, זָכָר וּנְקֵבָה מִכָּל-בָּשָׂר בָּאוּ, כַּאֲשֶׁר צִוָּה אֹתוֹ, אֱלֹהִים; וַיִּסְגֹּר יְהוָה, בַּעֲדוֹ.

¹⁶ So those that entered, male and female of all flesh, went in as God had commanded him; and the Lord shut him in.

Noah obeyed Elohim’s commandments and Yud-Hey-Vav-Hey shut him in. What does that mean to you based on our studies thus far?

Let’s read the next verses and remember to picture it in your minds. Be careful not to trivialize what we’re reading because you’ve heard the story “a million times.” That’s my tendency, but we have to remember that every time we read the Scriptures God has some new illumination to impart to us.

¹⁷ Now the flood was on the earth forty days. The waters increased and lifted up the ark, and it rose high above the earth.

Do you get anything from the Lord from that verse?

 ¹⁸ The waters prevailed and greatly increased on the earth, and the ark moved about on the surface of the waters. 

How about from that one?

¹⁹ And the waters prevailed exceedingly on the earth, and all the high hills under the whole heaven were covered. ²⁰ The waters prevailed fifteen cubits upward, and the mountains were covered. ²¹ And all flesh died that moved on the earth: birds and cattle and beasts and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, and every man. ²² All in whose nostrils was the breath of the spirit of life, all that was on the dry land, died. 

The the extra resources for this week’s study I’ve put a link to the ministry of “Answers in Genesis” all about the flood. I hope you’ll enjoy exploring more, as the Lord leads you.

²³ So He destroyed all living things which were on the face of the ground: both man and cattle, creeping thing and bird of the air. They were destroyed from the earth. Only Noah and those who were with him in the ark remained alive. ²⁴ And the waters prevailed on the earth one hundred and fifty days.

150 days… hmmm.  I wonder what God was saying by having the flood last 150 days. Let’s look at the numbers 5,3 and 10.

Five appears in the table of punishments, of legal requirements,  

• Exodus 22:1 
• Leviticus 5:16
• Leviticus 22:14
• Leviticus 27:15
• Numbers 5:7 
• Numbers 18:16 

Three was regarded, by both the Jews and other nations as a specially complete and mystic number. Ten as a preferential number is exemplified in the Ten Commandments and the law of tithe.

Now what do you see from the number 150?

As another reminder of things we’ve talked about in our studies so far, numbers in scripture have meaning. I’ve also included in this week’s extra resource an online resource for you to learn more about the significance of numbers in scripture.

Remember too, that if you’re new to our study you can go back and read the notes for all our lessons thus far.

Let’s pray.

Made Righteous in Christ

Numbers in Scripture

Session 4: Week 3 – Genesis 6:8-22

This week we’re going to begin our study with a verse that says something that each of us wants in our own lives. Genesis 6:8. Despite the days being wicked and people everywhere having evil hearts, Noah found grace in the eyes of יְהוָה.

Now the first thing I want to talk about is in who’s eyes Noah found grace. יְהוָה is God’s personal and intimate name. Sadly, in many of our English Bibles that name is replaced by the words ‘the Lord.’  We need to remember that we are studying God’s Word to get to know Him more intimately. When you get married to someone you know them by their first and personal name, not just their title. So, we too must get used to getting to know God by His holy name vs. just His title, Lord, which means master. He is so much more to us than just our master.

How do you think knowing God by His personal name vs. just His title, Lord, effects your relationship with Him?

יְהוָה, personally is the lover of our souls. Noah found grace in the eyes of יְהוָה because Noah was intimate with Him. We’ll see that in verse 9.

⁸ But Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

Next let’s look at this grace. The Hebrew word is חֵן chên khane; from H2603; graciousness, i.e. subjective (kindness, favor) or objective (beauty):—favour, grace(-ious), pleasant, precious, (well-) favoured.

There are actually two Hebrew words that are translated grace in our English Scriptures. The other is chesed. Chesed has a little different meaning.

Biblical scholars have often complained that the word חֶסֶד in the Hebrew Bible is difficult to translate into English, because it really has no equivalent in our language. English versions usually try to represent it with such words as “loving-kindness,” “mercy,” “steadfast love,” and sometimes “loyalty,” but the full meaning of the word cannot be conveyed without an explanation, such as the one given in the article below. This article, by Norman H. Snaith, is reproduced from A Theological Word Book of the Bible, edited by Alan Richardson (New York: MacMillan, 1951), pp. 136-7.

Loving-Kindness. This is a biblical word, invented by Miles Coverdale, and carried over into the English versions generally. It is one of the words he used in the Psalms (23 times, plus Hosea 2:19) to translate the Hebrew chesed when it refers to God’s love for his people Israel. Otherwise he used ‘mercy,’ ‘goodness,’ and ‘great kindness’ in the Psalms for God’s attitude to man; and, outside the Psalms, such words as ‘mercy,’ ‘goodness,’ ‘favour’ for God’s attitude to man, and ‘kindness’ for man’s attitude to man. (See other resources for the full article).

Noah found kindness, favor, preciousness, pleasantness, beauty in יְהוָה’s sight.

What can we do in our own lives to find grace (Chen) in God’s sight?

⁹ This is the genealogy of Noah. Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations. Noah walked with God. ¹⁰ And Noah begot three sons: Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

 Noah had three sons born to him, Shem, Ham, and Japheth, before God sent a flood to destroy the world Genesis 5:32. Whenever the names of Noah’s three sons are recorded, Shem is always mentioned first e.g., Genesis 9:18; 10:2, 21, even though Shem was the second-born (the Bible often lists people according to prominence rather than age). Japheth was the oldest Genesis 10:21, and Ham was the youngest Genesis 9:24.

Japheth was born when Noah was 500 years old, and the flood came 100 years later Genesis 7:6–7. Since Shem was 100 two years after the flood Genesis 11:10, he must have been born when Noah was 502 years old. There is no record of when Ham was born other than the fact that he was born sometime after Shem Genesis 9:24.

“Shem was the ancestor of all the sons of Eber” Genesis 10:21, and this is important because the word Eber is the origin of the Hebrew word for “Hebrew.” The word Shem means “name,” which implies that Noah expected this son’s name to become great. He was right—the modern words Semitic and Semite are derived from Shem’s name. The Bible records that Shem had five sons: Elam, Ashur, Arphaxad, Lud, and Aram Genesis 10:22. Shem lived to be 600 years of age Genesis 11:10–11 and became the ancestor of the Semitic peoples Genesis 10:1, 21–31. Abraham, a descendant of Shem, is the first person in the Bible who is referred to as a “Hebrew” (Genesis 14:13.

Noah blessed Shem above his brothers Genesis 9:26–27, and it was through Shem that the promised seed destined to crush Satan came Genesis 3:15. That seed is traced back to Adam’s son Seth Genesis 5:1–32, through Shem, and on to Abraham, Judah, and David, leading all the way to Christ Luke 3:36.

So this is very interesting. The line that Messiah was going to come to is through the line of Shem, which means name. This seems to give even greater incentive to knowing God by His personal name. What do you think about that?

¹¹ The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. ¹² So God looked upon the earth, and indeed it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth.¹³ And God said to Noah, “The end of all flesh has come before Me, for the earth is filled with violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth. ¹⁴ Make yourself an ark of gopherwood; make rooms in the ark, and cover it inside and outside with pitch. 

The Hebrew word gopher is used only once in the Bible, right here when God commands Noah to “make yourself an ark of gopher wood”. No one today knows what “gopher wood” is—Noah obviously knew—the King James Version, the New King James Version, New American Standard Bible, and English Standard Version simply transliterate the Hebrew and leave it as “gopher wood.” The Septuagint (the Greek Old Testament) renders the phrase as “squared beams,” and the Latin Vulgate says “planed wood.”

Many modern scholars consider “gopher wood” to be cypress because cypress wood is extremely durable. Modern English versions of the Bible, such as the New International Version, the New Living Translation, and the New English Translation, translate it as “cypress wood.” The Smith Bible Dictionary defines gopher as “any trees of the resinous kind, such as pine, fir, or cypress.” A weakness of the “cypress” translation is that the word for “cypress” or “fir” in biblical Hebrew is berosh, not gopher.

When we try to identify a specific tree as the “gopher wood” we run into several problems:  First, any designation comes down to guesswork. Other theories besides cypress include cedar, pine, ebony, fir, wicker, juniper, acacia, bulrushes, and boxwood. Very likely, gopher wood doesn’t exist today. Countless plants have become extinct since the time of Noah. In fact, we know very little about the kinds of wood available to Noah; no one living has seen the antediluvian world.

¹⁵ And this is how you shall make it: The length of the ark shall be three hundred cubits, its width fifty cubits, and its height thirty cubits. ¹⁶ You shall make a window for the ark, and you shall finish it to a cubit from above; and set the door of the ark in its side. You shall make it with lower, second, and third decks. ¹⁷ 

At approximately 510 feet long, it would take nearly one and a half football fields to equal the Ark’s length. That’s big enough that NASA could lay three space shuttles—nose to tail—on the Ark’s roof!  The roof of Noah’s Ark was more than 50 feet from the ground—higher than a modern four-story house. That’s plenty of space for three extra-tall inner decks as the Bible describes. The Ark had the same storage capacity as about 450 standard semi-trailers. A standard livestock trailer holds about 250 sheep, so the Ark had the capacity to hold at least 120,000 sheep.

FYI: Ark Encounter features a full-size Noah’s Ark, built according to the dimensions given in the Bible. Spanning 510 feet long, 85 feet wide, and 51 feet high, this modern engineering marvel amazes visitors young and old. Ark Encounter is situated in beautiful Grant County in Williamstown, Kentucky, halfway between Cincinnati and Lexington and right off I-75. If you’re driving through the area or live near there I encourage a visit.

And behold, I Myself am bringing floodwaters on the earth, to destroy from under heaven all flesh in which is the breath of life; everything that is on the earth shall die. ¹⁸ But I will establish My covenant with you; and you shall go into the ark—you, your sons, your wife, and your sons’ wives with you.

God is making a covenant here with Noah. In Scripture there are two kinds of covenants. Conditional and unconditional. In order to understand God’s ways it’s important to understand that He makes covenants with mankind, and what those covenants are. In this instance The Noahic Covenant was an unconditional covenant between God and Noah (specifically) and humanity (generally). After the Flood, God promised humanity that He would never again destroy all life on earth with a Flood (see Genesis chapter 9). God gave the rainbow as the sign of the covenant, a promise that the entire earth would never again flood and a reminder that God can and will judge sin 2 Peter 2:4-5.

Now I’m passionate about this and I’m going to bring it up here, even though it’s somewhat contreversial. We must reclaim the true meaning of the rainbow and not let the LGBT community reframe it and use it for their own advantages, or symbolism. Sometimes I hear Christians repelled by the rainbow because of it’s use by the LGBT community as their flag. I believe they are prophetically declaring that God can and will judge their sin. Let’s continue to remember that and love and pray for them to recognize that, while not being repelled by the rainbow ourselves.

Thoughts?

 ¹⁹ And of every living thing of all flesh you shall bring two of every sort into the ark, to keep them alive with you; they shall be male and female. 

Interesting that this very next verse kind of speaks to the issue. God keeps species alive when they came into the ark, male and female.

²⁰ Of the birds after their kind, of animals after their kind, and of every creeping thing of the earth after its kind, two of every kind will come to you to keep them alive. ²¹ And you shall take for yourself of all food that is eaten, and you shall gather it to yourself; and it shall be food for you and for them.”

²² Thus Noah did; according to all that God commanded him, so he did.

Here’s why Noah had chen/grace with God. In what ways are you doing or not doing all that God has commanded you?

Let’s pray.

CHESED – God’s loving-kindness

GOD’S COVENANTS